London must learn the Olympics lessons of Vancouver

Star quality: Amy Williams shows off her gold medal for the women's skeleton

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are drawing to a close and with them the last opportunity for London 2012 to learn first hand from an Olympic Games.

And we have the Paralympic Games to learn from next month, too. Because it will be our turn in just 882 days' time.

Staging an Olympic Games is the equivalent of 26 World Championships, involving more than 200 countries, over 16 days, with a two-week break before we do it all over again for the Paralympic Games.

We know you can never have too much knowledge, too many learning opportunities or do too much planning. Watching a Games take place — and for some of my team actually working in the Vancouver team — is the best possible opportunity to do this.

Our team at London 2012 learned a huge amount about sport and the "field of play" in Beijing in 2008. This time, in Vancouver, we have focused on Games time operations, on how the city functions during the Games, and how the enormous logistical challenges are delivered.

But before I get into the detailed learnings, let's be clear on one thing — the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games were a stunning success on many fronts.

Firstly, the sport. We saw once again that there is nothing like brilliant sporting moments to inspire. Who can forget Lindsey Vonn hurling herself down the mountain to win the women's downhill, or the bravery of Anja Persson winning bronze in the combined event just 24 hours after a terrifying fall. We saw Shaun White, the snowboarding genius, John Montgomery in the skeleton bob — all shape our memories of Vancouver. And then, of course, there was amazing Amy Williams, delivering our gold medal moment, with what felt like half the country staying up to watch her brave and skilful victory.

Secondly, the stadiums in Vancouver and courses in Whistler were packed. And they were full of the right people — real sports fans with knowledge of their sport, and fans who were not just passionate supporters of the home team but generously supported every competitor, whether Canadian or not.

This is what we want for London 2012 — stadiums packed to the rafters with people of all ages who simply love sport.

Thirdly, Vancouver showed us how a Games can bring a city to life. At times it felt as if the whole of Canada was joining in, with streets full of excited fans singing and cheering. Canadians clearly loved being part of the Games and took every opportunity to show the world how much they meant. As a Londoner, I know we will do the same in 2012, and we are determined to excite and inspire Londoners so they feel part of everything we do.

The Live Sites — the big screens in prominent places in Vancouver — were a great way of bringing people together to celebrate. Some of the best parties downtown were at the Live Sites where thousands turned out to watch the action unfolding on-screen and join in the fun at these little "theatres", created by sponsors. The atmosphere at these sites when Canadians won medals was incredible. One of our major learnings is how important these big screens are, and what an important role they can play in capturing the imagination of Londoners outside the venues.

Volunteers play a massive role in delivering the Games — and later this year we will launch our own campaign to recruit 70,000 brilliant volunteers for London 2012. The Vancouver volunteers were another great success story — and my team learned a huge amount about the role smart volunteers can play, about the standard of customer service required, and about the amount of training our volunteers will need.

From the moment I and my team of around 50 from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games landed, we were welcomed and guided by some incredible people who had signed up simply to be part of the Games. We know Londoners will rise to the challenge in 2012, and we have gained some excellent insight into how we recruit and train what will be our frontline ambassadors for our Games.

We will fly home this weekend and start our internal debrief first thing next week. We will share information on sport, transport, accommodation, the athletes' village, venue operations, communications, marketing, technology, ceremonies and city operations. We'll discuss the innovative Vancouver Cultural Olympiad and the programme the Vancouver organisers delivered to engage the city and the nation.

Although the Games got off to a difficult start, with the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, they will leave enduring memories of how athletes, organisers and the people of Vancouver went beyond their personal best to deliver to the rest of us experiences of a lifetime.

The 2010 Winter Paralympic Games begin on 12 March. I will be back in Vancouver and will have a team on the ground watching them, learning and soaking up every last piece of knowledge. I know, from our experience at the Olympic Games, that the Paralympic Games will be a great success, and we look forward to returning from Vancouver at the end of March excited and inspired that London is now the next Olympic and Paralympic City.

In the coming months, our job is to inspire Londoners and the whole country to sign up and get involved in London 2012. Having seen Vancouver, I know London can do it.Sebastian Coe is chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.